Doug Tidwell has just sent out a message informing that the final version of the crowd sourced Cloud Computing use cases white paper has been published under an open source license (including images). (See complete white paper below)

Tidwell has this to say "This is the synthesis of lots of hard work and insight from lots of people. I hope it will be a great resource for the community and a foundation for the hard work ahead of us. Our common goal is to keep cloud computing open, and the use cases and requirements we've developed will help us drive that forward. Whenever someone says, "We don't need an open way of doing X," we can respond, "So tell us how to implement use case Y without being locked in to your platform."

According to the final document, "The Cloud Computing Use Case group brought together cloud consumers and cloud vendors to define common use case scenarios for cloud computing. The use case scenarios demonstrate the performance and economic benefits of cloud computing and are based on the needs of the widest possible range of consumers."

"The goal of this white paper is to highlight the capabilities and requirements that need to be standardized in a cloud environment to ensure interoperability, ease of integration and portability. It must be possible to implement all of the use cases described in this paper without using closed, proprietary technologies. Cloud computing must evolve as an open environment, minimizing vendor lock-in and increasing customer choice."

This is a great example of how we in the open cloud computing community can come together to create something meaningful. Congratulations to a job well done!
Cloud Computing Use Cases Whitepaper